emphasized that the resurgent nationalism of India must be based on her spiritual
ideals, but that healthy scientific and technological knowledge from the West, also, had
to be assimilated in the process of growth. The fundamental problem of India, he
pointed out, was to organize the whole country around religious ideals. By religion the
Swami meant not local customs which served only a contemporary purpose, but the
eternal principles taught in the Vedas.
Wherever the Swami went he never wearied of trying to rebuild individual character in
India, pointing out that the strength of the whole nation depended upon the strength of
the individual. Therefore each individual, he urged, whatever might be his occupation,
should try, if he desired the good of the nation as a whole, to build up his character and
acquire such virtues as courage, strength, self-respect, love, and service of others. To
the young men, especially, he held out renunciation and service as the hightest ideal.
He preached the necessity of spreading a real knowledge of Sanskrit, without which a
Hindu would remain an alien to his own rich culture. To promote unity among the
Hindus, he encouraged intermarriage between castes and sub-castes, and wanted to
reorganize the Indian universities so that they might produce real patriots, rather than
clerks, lawyers, diplomats, and Government officials.
Swami Vivekananda's keen intellect saw the need of uniting the Hindus and Moslems
on the basis of the Advaita philosophy, which teaches the oneness of all. One June 10,
1898, he wrote to a Moslem gentleman at Nainital:
The Hindus may get the credit for arriving at Advaitism earlier than other races, they
being an older race than either the Hebrew or the Arab; yet practical Advaitism, which
looks upon and behaves towards all mankind as one's own soul, is yet to be developed
among the Hindus universally. On the other hand, our experience is that if ever the
followers of any religion approach to this equality in an appreciable degree on the
plane of practical work-a-day life — it may be quite unconscious generally of the
deeper meaning and the underlying principle of such conduct, which the Hindus as a
rule so clearly perceive — it is those of Islam and Islam alone.
Therefore we are firmly persuaded that without the help of practical Islam, the theories
of Vedantism, however fine and wonderful they may be, are entierely valuless to the
vast mass of mankind. We want to lead mankind to the place where there is neither the
Vedas nor the Bible nor the Koran; yet this has to be done by harmonizing the Vedas,
the Bible, and the Koran. Mankind ought to be taught that religions are but the varied
expressions of the Religion which is Oneness, so that each may choose the path that
suits him best.
For our own motherland a junction of the two great systems, Hinduism and Islam —
Vedantic brain and Islamic body — is the only hope. I see in my mind's eye the future
perfect India rising out of this chaos and strife, glorious and invincible, with Vedantic
brain and Islamic body.